GeForce GTX 580M SLI vs Radeon HD 8970M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 580M SLI and Radeon HD 8970M, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 580M SLI stacks up against Radeon HD 8970M, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GTX 580M SLI and Radeon HD 8970M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: GeForce GTX 580M SLI and Radeon HD 8970M are only used in laptop graphics. They have lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with GeForce GTX 580M SLI or Radeon HD 8970M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 580M SLI Radeon HD 8970M
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 100 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs
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  • Both graphics cards have the same power consumption of 100 Watt.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 580M SLI is build with Fermi architecture, and Radeon HD 8970M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 230 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 580M SLI.
  • GeForce GTX 580M SLI is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 8970M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 3300 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 580M SLI.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 24−27 20−22
ultra / 1080p 14−16 12−14
QHD / 1440p 10−11 6−7
4K / 2160p 6−7 5−6
low / 720p 45−50 35−40
medium / 1080p 30−35 24−27
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 580M SLI in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 22% more, than Radeon HD 8970M.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 580M SLI Radeon HD 8970M
Architecture Fermi GCN
Code name N12E-GTX2 Neptune
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 6 January 2011 15 May 2013
Pipelines 768 1280
Core clock speed 620 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 72.00
Floating-point performance 2,304 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 1500 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1
OpenGL 4.6
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 273 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
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